12-Month Flower Sampler

I finally got started on the Temari Challenge group project that started in January. Several people in the group have been working on it, and one person has finished hers. I am bringing up the rear, and decided I better get going.

One of the reasons it took me so long is because this thing is huge! I bought a styrofoam ball for the center, since it would be way too heavy if I used rice bran for the center. It took me a whole afternoon and part of the next day to wrap this mari, and I had a sore shoulder when I got done. I couldn't work as usual, holding the ball in my left hand, and wrapping with my right, because it is too big to hold in one hand. I rested it on my stomach, and just rotated it as I wrapped with my right hand. I was able to get a random wrap, but I was amazed by how much thread it used.

Then I found a new problem. There are several ways of marking a c10 temari, but my favorite is to start with a blank mari, and my v-ruler. There are cheat-sheets in the Japanese books that will give you your "magic number" from just knowing the circumference (in centimeters) of your mari--the v-ruler goes up to 7 cm. The circumference of this mari is over 50 cm, and my cheat sheet did not go that high. Fortunately, the TemariMath.info site has a temari calculator, that gives you all the information (and more) that you could desire when you just input the circumference, so I did not have to pull my calculator out, or stress any grey matter. But, my magic number turned out to be 9.22 cm, too big for my v-ruler. What to do, what to do!?

I figured out if I cut out two pieces of quilling paper to 9.22 cm I could triangulate off two pins that were at the proper distance apart and find the location of the third pin. It worked like a charm, and actually took me less time to place the pins than usual. (I tried to save the two pieces of paper to show you, but they got lost in my chair, so you only have one to look at.)



I am not sure what flowers I am going to use for each month. Every time I make a list it is different. I was sure, however, that I was going to make a water lily for August. I had practiced on the side opposite my turtle, and I liked how it turned out, and I have very fond memories of spending time at the lake at my parents' house. August was always beautiful because of the water-lilies.

So here it is stitched. You can see the normal sized temari cuddled up to it, just to show the scale.



The next flower will be a peace rose for June. My grandpa grew roses, and was always very proud of his peace roses. I pulled the colors last night; now to get them stitched.